Congratulations to the 2018 PiE Scholarship Finalists and Winner!

Written by Winston Long on Jun 3, 2018

This year marks the 5th anniversary of the PiE Alumni Scholarship! This award is presented to a high school senior in recognition of their dedication to PiE’s goals of higher level education and outreach to the community. The following are the PiE 2018 Alumni Scholarship finalists for the $2000 award.

Esmeralda Topete

Our PiE 2018 Scholarship winner is Esmeralda, who stood out with her level-headedness and maturity. She showed a profound depth of responsibility and respect for herself, and for her friends and colleagues as well. From her life and work experiences, this candidate knows that being a leader means thinking for the group and making sure that everyone is taken care of. She knows that making an impact means giving others the opportunity to explore their passions and potentials. To those who are just starting out, she offers this piece of advice: “It is okay to fail and get back up.” Esmeralda will be attending UC Santa Cruz to study robotics engineering and math.

Giovanni Lara

Giovanni’s passion for medicine is admirable. He is motivated to find treatments for diseases without known cures, and is determined to provide affordable access to medication for those in need. As a part of PiE, Giovanni shows great initiative by staying late at worksessions and passing on his knowledge to younger students. He is planning to attend UC Davis to study Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

Jahnvi Doshi

Jahnvi impressed us with her level of self-awareness. She intentionally put herself in situations where she would grow out of her shyness into a young, charismatic leader. As co-president of her robotics team, she has helped individuals discover their potentials. Outside of robotics, she has expressed a wide array of interests, spanning from mock trial to Bollywood dancing. Jahnvi intends to pursue her passions by studying electrical engineering and computer science, as well as business, at UC Berkeley.

Phuoc (Lucky) Nguyen

An inventor at heart, Lucky’s eyes sparkle when he talks about mechanical engineering. Ever since he was a child, Lucky has been taking apart household items and putting them back together to see how they work. He wants to build in order to give back to the community; he understands that “the life that we live is not the life most people live” and he hopes to work on projects that will improve the quality of life for those who need it most. Lucky will be studying mechanical engineering at UC Davis.

Ricardo Villalobos

After building a website for a local business, Ricardo discovered his passion for computer science. Moreover, he understood the potential to help others in his community with technology. Inspired by his own mentors, Ricardo hopes to give back this summer by being a junior instructor for high school students interested in programming. Ricardo will be studying computer science at UC Berkeley.